Weekend Recap: I Wish They Were All Like This!

What a weekend! The race, the course, the people I met, and the spare time I had to spend with my family. If every weekend was like this, Operation Jack would be a piece of cake! Well, aside from the downhills I ran on Saturday that have my quads feeling like trash right now. By the way, you’re never going to guess who I caught wearing a snuggie on Saturday!

Just in case this is your first time here, I’m a father of three and a marathon runner. My middle child, 6 1/2-year-old Jack, is severely autistic. Because of what he goes through, fighting autism is my cause and I wanted to try to make a difference. So, what I’m doing is trying to run 60 marathons this year to raise money and awareness for a charity called Train 4 Autism.

So far, so good. I’m reaching people, raising money and I’ve run 29 of my 60 scheduled marathons so far. On Saturday, I was the official 3:40 pacer for the Utah Valley Marathon. You can read my recap here. A picture of my Garmin from after the race should give you a pretty good indication of how I did:

So anyways, on with the weekend …

The First Thing I Did On My Weekend Was … Work!
I had to leave work a couple of hours early to catch my flight to Salt Lake City, but the plane had wifi. I always check in my browser to see if there’s any kind of promo, and sure enough, there was — by watching a 30-second FedEx commercial, I got free wifi for the flight! So I got to debug some code, upload some changes, telnet into my server and send some shell commands … I was in geek heaven and I got two parts of a project done that I’m working on. It was awesome!

Nothing Beats Meeting Great People
This whole Operation Jack thing is totally exhausting, but it’s certainly a unique, once-in-a-lifetime experience. One of the greatest benefits is that I get to meet great people on a weekly basis. On Friday and Saturday in Utah, I got to meet Alicia Verburg. I came in contact with her through the blogging community and we’ve talked a bit over the past few months.

She started up a chapter of Train 4 Autism in Utah and is very enthusiastic about the cause. My goal with Operation Jack, in addition to raising money, is to bring a lot of good people into the charity. When I see people start chapters and get involved, it’s the ultimate confirmation that what I’m doing is working. Alicia is a lot like me. She’s very passionate in the cause, she strongly believes in the Train 4 Autism model, and she wants to do whatever she can to make a difference.

Also, like me, she’s not exactly sure how to do that, but she’s going to try her best. On Friday night, I went straight from the airport to the expo, where she was manning the Train 4 Autism table. We spent a good 30-40 minutes talking and brainstorming ideas. I also talked to her some more after the race on Saturday at the Train 4 Autism booth.

When I talked to her afterwards, she said she had been excited about Train 4 Autism, but meeting me was exciting because it made everything “come to life.” Well, it’s the same way for me when I meet people like Alicia. I sit on my couch and write my blogs, then travel to races and travel back home. But when I meet people like her who are going to do a great job building a good chapter, I get excited because that’s how I see things come to life.

She’s talking about running the Utah Valley Marathon next year, and we talked about some ways to get a big team formed. If we can make that happen, I’m going to do everything I can to get back out there.

I’m running 60 marathons this year. If I bring 20 Alicias into Train 4 Autism by the time the year is over, it will all be worth it.

But Wait … There’s More!
I also got to meet somebody named Ryan Sullivan. I started talking to him through Twitter. We’ve conversed through Twitter and e-mail. He’s lost a ton of weight recently … I asked him, but my memory is kind of hazy, so I’m not sure how much. Maybe 100 pounds? He really digs what I’m doing and I told him to come out and say hello since he was in my neck of the woods.

I saw him after the race and he said hi, but I wasn’t putting 2 and 2 together when he said hi. I just gave him a generic “hey!” and he identified himself by his ID on Twitter (@nomorebacon). 10 years ago, that kind of a thing would probably qualify you as a geek, but in 2010, that’s how the world works. I’d seen pictures of him, so I knew there was a reason he looked familiar.

He has a son who has autism and he’s also pretty excited about Train 4 Autism. He wouldn’t have heard about us if not for my 60-marathon stunt, which is why I’m doing this. I still have some emails to send, but I’m going to put him in touch with Alicia so they can really get rolling.

I got to spend a fair amount of time talking to him and his wife Jackie and I got to see his two little boys. He had all sorts of nice things to say, but as always, I deflected the praise. As I told him, I’m not the one who gave myself the ability to recover well after marathons. I’ve been given a gift, and all I’m doing is taking advantage of it. I truly believe that and I’ll tell that to anybody who will listen.

Later on, he emailed me and told me, “Thank you for sacrificing your body for my son.” If my running can somehow make a difference for his son, for my son, or for children who haven’t even been born yet but will have autism, then it’s all worth it. I don’t like to take credit, but it’s nice to get confirmation that I’m doing the right thing.

It was nice to meet Ryan. Hopefully we’ll cross paths again.

I Didn’t Run Hard This Weekend, But My Friends Did!
Two of my friends, Ryan Gillia and Rachel Boyd, ran the San Diego 100 this weekend. My friend Lori Liu ran a big chunk of that with Ryan, and my friend Billy Yang ran a big chunk of that with Rachel. It was Ryan’s second 100 and Rachel’s first, although Rachel won a 100K in February.

I followed along with what they were doing through Billy on Twitter and I know it’s just a bunch of names to most of you, but it’s my blog and I’m super proud of them. I feel like a proud papa, even though they’re not my kids and I think they’re CRAZY! They’re all great people I’ve met through running and I’m so excited for all of them. I’m sure they all had an amazing time and I’m really excited about this, so I figured I’d put a couple of paragraphs in here about them.

The Pros And Cons Of An Early Flight Home
I was going to have Cracker Barrel, one of my favorites, for lunch on Saturday after the race, but I ran out of time because I had a fairly early flight home. I ended up making a quick stop at In-N-Out instead. As much as I love In-N-Out, I’m going to call that a bummer, because I can get that any time I want. I live about a mile from the nearest one. I get to eat at Cracker Barrel about once a year.

However, I touched down in Orange County at 4:20 on Saturday and walked through my front door at 4:58 p.m. Yes, I was at home and “on weekend” before 5 p.m. on Saturday. I like that. It’s worth missing Cracker Barrel for.

I’ll Just Suck Up My Pride And Admit This
You know how at the top of this blog I said you’re never going to guess who I caught wearing a snuggie on Saturday? Well, it was me. They gave them out at an Angels game I went to in April, and it was a touch chilly in my house on Saturday night, so I grabbed it and put it on. At the time, we were watching the movie It’s Complicated.

So yes, I’ll admit it. On Saturday night, I was wearing a snuggie and watching a chick flick. Burn my Man Card.

This Made Me Happy
On Saturday night, for a little while, all three of the kids were having what we call a “sleepover” in the playroom. Jack willingly climbed into the sleeping bag for the first time. It was so awesome. Me and Tiff were whispering about how cool it would be if all three of them had fun together the way three typical siblings normally do.

Jack was more interested in his Leapster than in the movie, but it was still pretty exciting for us. It only lasted for about 30 minutes, though. He got up out of the sleeping bag and eventually wanted to go to sleep in his bed. And later, Ava got in trouble for irritating Benjamin by faking snore noises while she was awake. After one-too-many warnings, she had to go sleep in her room.

But it was fun while it lasted!

Kids Say The Darndest Things
Last night at dinner, my soon-to-be-9-year-old Benjamin ordered a Red Robin Kids Burger. The only problem with that is we were at Chili’s.

That’s All For Today
That’s more than enough reading information for today. I’ll see you back here tomorrow with 10 random things for Tuesday!